CDOT: Better road could have been taken on U.S. 36 contract

WESTMINSTER — After the fiery session with angry residents, a Colorado Department of Transportation official said Wednesday night the state's first-ever pact that allows a private company to manage a Colorado highway and collect tolls should have been brought before the public sooner.

"This is a lesson learned," said CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford. "It is clear the public has a lot of questions about this and we should have engaged them sooner and more robustly."

Ford spoke after a raucous, nearly three-hour long question-and-answer session over a proposed 50-year-agreement between CDOT and Plenary Roads Denver to oversee U.S. 36 between Boulder and Denver.

Over 300 people packed the main meeting room of the Westminster Recreation Center to lash CDOT over the planned deal.

Lawmakers will get their turn today to question CDOT before a joint meeting of the House and Senate Transportation Committee.

On Wednesday night, many attendees denounced the deal as corrupt and deadly for taxpayers.

"Fifty years is an insane amount of time," said Mike Skirpan of Boulder. "Where is our protection?"

"You never, ever sell a public entity to a private interest," said Denver-area resident William Johnson. "This is going to be a disaster."

Others lambasted Plenary Roads Denver as an outsider with no experience in building roads in the United States. The company has offices in Australia and Canada.

"I don't want my tax dollars going to Australia," said Regina Fisher of Broomfield. "They are not U.S. citizens."

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During the meeting, CDOT officials defended the proposed contract with Plenary Roads, saying it is "airtight" with provisions to protect residents and to allow the state to oversee the highway.

"We've got a good partner here," said Michael Cheroutes, director of the High Performance Transportation Enterprise, a segment of CDOT that will oversee the management of the highway.

Without Plenary Roads, said Cheroutes, the widening and improvements for U.S. 36 would take 20 years. The project is slated to be finished in about two years.

The crowd Wednesday night loudly echoed the objections of activists, some lawmakers and some residents who have attacked the proposed public-private contract between Plenary Roads and the state as being too secretive and full of giveaways at the public's expense.

"Roughly 100,000 commuters travel the U.S. 36 corridor every day — many of them are my constituents," said state Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville. "My requests for a copy of this contract over the past several months has been denied. The taxpayers and fee payers funding this reconstruction project deserve to know what it contains."

To ease fears, CDOT scheduled two public meetings, including Wednesday's in Westminster. The other is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Louisville Recreation Center, 900 W. Via Appia Way.

Jones is among 14 state lawmakers who have asked to see the contract before it is signed. CDOT has not responded to their request but will go over the proposed pact Thursday at the state Capitol.

Plenary Roads — a consortium of six companies with backgrounds in financing, construction and road design — was picked last spring to complete the second phase of the $425 million, U.S. 36 Managed Lanes Project.

Plenary Roads will also maintain the entire corridor, including ice and snow removal, and Interstate 25 from U.S. 36 to downtown Denver.

Under the proposed agreement, Plenary Roads will collect all revenue from toll lanes, which will stretch in each direction of the turnpike.

Critics have attacked the proposed language of the agreement that says a roundtrip toll between Boulder and Denver could cost as much as $28 during peak hours and could be adjusted higher for inflation.

Also, the minimum number of occupants per vehicle that would be allowed in a high-occupancy lane will be three, rather than two, which also angers detractors. In addition, the pact prevents local governments and the state from building new roads near U.S. 36 because they might drain traffic from the highway and away from Plenary Roads' coffers, some say.

"This contract is a bad financial deal for the people of Colorado," said Ken Beitel, clean-energy analyst with the Drive SunShine Institute.

CDOT says critics are misrepresenting what the contract with Plenary Roads actually states.

The agency can continue to make roadway improvements in the area, although "we must work with our partner should any construction impact the operations of the toll lanes," said CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford.

Tolls, meanwhile, will be capped at $14 each way for the 50-year life of the contract, Ford said. But, "the likelihood we would get to that point is slim; and we expect tolls to be very similar to what they are today on the I-25 corridor, ranging from $4 to $6," she said.

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